What’s Coming With Judie on Spring Break Article

By now, most of you have heard that Julie’s and my families are going to
Scotland for Spring Break. While Julie and I intend to do a full write-up on our
experiences after we get back, I thought it would be fun to let you all in on
what I plan on bringing, before I actually get packed.

The biggest consideration I am making in regard to the gear I chose to bring,
is that it has to be versatile and multifunctional. I am packing as light as
possible, and I don’t want to bring along any piece of gear that isn’t
absolutely necessary. In fact, instead of traveling with my monster sized
Halliburton that usually accompanies me everywhere, I am going to do something
unprecedented. I am going to try to fit everything I need for a week in Scotland
inside the Swiss Army
rolling bag I was given at Mï¿½bius.
Anything that doesn’t fit in there is going in the corner of my husband’s large
rolling bag that he has promised he’ll save for me. Of course, I’ll also have my
gear bag with me for all of the gadget stuff I’ll need each day.

So why am I traveling in a manner so completely out of character?
After hearing from helpful Gadgeteer readers about the small size of most
European cabs’ trunks, and since the apartment we’ll be staying in has a washer
and dryer (convenient!) – I am going to seriously pursue the art of traveling
light. Can I do it? That remains to be seen – I still have some time before
I actually start packing, but for now – that is the plan.

So here is a peek in my gear bag. If you can think of anything that I may
have missed, particularly in the software area – speak up now! I would hate to
get over there and wish that I had remembered to add something while I still
could…

Hardware

I am actually going to be bringing both myPalm Tungsten | T as well as myHP iPAQ 5455. Now before anyone starts
throwing my words back at me about how I said I was traveling light – let me
explain myself…

My reasoning is that the TT will be my daily PDA, loaded with all of the
essential programs that I will need. To complement the TT, and to make up for
the fact that I will not be bringing my
Fujitsu Lifebook (mini-moi), I am bringing aStowaway XT keyboard. I figure that this
should be sufficient for all of the detailed notes that I’ll want to take for
the article Julie and I will be writing about our trip.

My iPAQ, on the other hand, will be my media-horse. Julie is bringing her new
Sony camera that uses Memory Sticks. I am bringing aCanon Powershot
S330 which uses Compact Flash cards and my husband will be carrying a
Olympus C-700 which uses Smart Media. So right there, you can see that we
will have three different types of memory cards that need to be emptied every so
often. I have a 5GB
DataPak that will be perfect for holding all of these picture files as we
collect them. Using my trustyWhitney iPAQ PC BaqPaq,
I can insert a 4-in-1 media
reader or a CF Reader, move the files to my almost emptied iPAQ (which I did
in preparation for this trip), and then I can remove the reader and insert the
DataPak to transfer over all of the files. As an added bonus, if we happen to be
in any 802.11b enabled areas, I will be able to access the web and check my
e-mail. Perfect! ☺

My cameras, two PDAs, memory cards, their
readers, as well as my wallet and a few other personal items will easily fit in
my Louis Vuitton Nil, which is what I use as a gearbag.

Other Gear

I will also be bringing AANEXcell batteries and their
charger to use with the Olympus, as well as all of the necessary chargers for
the two PDAs and the Canon.

Software

The plane ride from Dallas to London Gatwick looks like it will be very
long. Even though much of the flight will be taken up with talking, watching
movies, and sleeping – I would be lost without a few necessary programs on my
Palm. Here are the ones that made the cut…

Time Wasters

PalmReader Pro
No PDA of mine is ever complete without PalmReader Pro. I usually have
quite a few books loaded on my memory card, and I have even more in anticipation
of this trip. I sure am looking forward to devouring them on the plane rides!

Astraware Games
I have a freshly installed protector on my TT just because of these titles –
seriously.

If you ever want to see what separates a premium protector such as theG2,WriteSHIELD, or theBrando Plus from the other,
lesser protectors, then all you have to do is play thirty minutes worth ofText Twist.
Afterward, take a good look at the damage you will have done to any other
ordinary protector – or heaven forbid – your screen, if you didn’t use a
protector. Here are my current Astraware favorites…

Text Twist is a game where the object is to see
how many words you can create from the five letters provided. As long as you
can get at least one five letter word, you will be able to advance to the
next level. This game is completely addictive, as I mentioned recently in mygear diary.

BookWorm is another word puzzle that is hard to
put down. In this game, you have to link at least three letters together to
form words. Certain letters will be worth more than others, and you have to
use "burning letters before they reach the bottom and set the library on
fire." This game is almost as addictive as Text Twist, and even though the
graphics are way better – for whatever reason I am stuck on the former.

Insaniquarium is a different type of game than the
previous two. In this one, you have an aquarium with fish that you need to
feed. As they grow, they start to drop coins, which you can bank to buy more
fish or different items that will make your life easier. You also need the
money to buy enough "eggs" to advance to the next level. Don’t be fooled
into thinking this is some goofy take on the portable pets that were so
popular years ago…this is a whole different experience. You have to be
quick to tap on the screen – feeding fish, catching coins, and killing
aliens.

Once again, don’t say I didn’t warn you if you play any of these games
without a screen protector in place!

I always like to play the slots when I go to Vegas – not that I am any good
at them, of course! I also like to play Black Jack and video poker – but once
again, I get squeamish when real money is involved. I have never understood
Craps, so I don’t even play…but I have given Roulette a go and come away with
a little bit of money in my pocket. Here is a way that I can play all five
popular Vegas games without losing my life’s savings! The graphics are very well
done, and the game play is exciting!

Utilities

While the games will be great ways to waste my down time, I also have a few
travel essentials loaded on my Palm.

Since I will be away from my laptop, and the ability to hot-sync my data – or
recover my data and applications should disaster strike, it was imperative that
I find a way to backup my Tungsten’s contents. Botzam Backup allows me to do
that, and manages to do a few tricks with the backup files in the process. You
can schedule regular backups, you can securely encrypt your backup, and you can
selectively have your files compressed!

Since I would not even presume to do a Dollar to Pound transaction without a
calculator, it should be even easier to do with this program. The buttons are
big enough that I can tap the screen with my finger, and the exchange rates can
be programmed in as needed. I may look like a tourist, but at least I won’t look
unsuspecting!

I just realized that we have exactly seven more days before we leave for
Scotland! Not only do I need to go practice my packing, I also need to make sure
that I have everything that I am going to need ready for the trip. I am sure
that there must be many more programs that would make the flight and time we are
in the UK even better; do any of you have any suggestions?

AA battery adapter for PDA: I would never get on an international flight without one of these and a fistful of AAs! I have the one by Data Nation, though I’ve heard it’s not too hard to make one yourself if you’re handy with a solderer.

Airline headset adapter: Depending on which airline you’re flying, you’ll want this $5 adapter (Radio Shack) so you can use your own headphones with the airline audio. I can’t remember which airlines don’t have an 1/8″ jack, though, other than Continental.

Vindigo: They have London, though not Edinburgh.

Very envious of the 5 gig PC Card… I need something like that in CF for my Ipaq and Canon CF digital camera! I’d also suggest bringing a sync cable, just so you can transmit photos back home if you can borrow someone’s desktop, so they’re not only on that PC Card. We had one sad instance with a trip where a laptop hard drive died and took many digital photos with it.

Ellen – that was a great suggestion about the sync cable! The AA Adapter is a great idea, too…wonder if I can get one before I go? Good to hear from you, by the way! :0)

John – I am afraid that we may have overestimated when we thought we would get to London and possibly Paris. We have become a little more realistic. This means we will most likely be staying only in Scotland and northern England. Yes, it will be cold and nasty, but we will manage. Winter/Spring in Scotland is still worth the trip!

and for a balanced look at Scotland (from the English 🙂 ) try Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Tim the Enchanter sketch for a go at the Scots and Swamp castle for a go at the northern English). Available on DVD for airplane watching. And as text and wav files:http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Makeup/4823/rabbit.html

You know what? I forgot to mention the PHONE! HA! Since I don’t use a GSM (I live in BFE, remember?), we are going to RENT a GSM phone from this comapany, Rent-a-Phone.

It’s $30 for the week, $2 a minute for calls out – but we get $20 worth of calls for free, and all incoming calls in Scotland are free. I shouldn’t need to call anyone – but if anyone from home wants to get us, it will be easy.

Judie, would you like my GSM-to-PPC CF modem? It is slow (9600 baud) but it works just fine, and my cable is for a Nokia 5100/6100 phone. I can Fedex it to you if you want it, along with my Data-Nation AA battery adapter.

And…wow!… Tmobile Wifi is in England! <swoon> I have one of their prepaid accounts, and they are GREAT! (Well, rather expensive… but great! <g>)

Judie,
I wouldn’t travel on any long trips without my DVD Laptop. Why? Playing favorite DVD movies while in transit kept my two young children occupied and happy during our vacation to the UK and France last year. Pack a bunch of DVD’s in a cd wallet to avoid the “Are we there yet?” infinite loop. We pack light, we carry everything in backpacks, but the extra weight of the laptop is worth it. Have fun!

You are bringing 2 PDA but no GPS or maps in any of them? When I went to NY I would have been lost if I did not have GPS with maps. But then again I used vintigo. Perhaps a bluetooth GPS like EMTAC ? you can use both with the Palm and HP.:)

While this isn’t eletronic, it protects your electronics: Ziplock Bags. I can’t begin to tell you how useful ziplock bags are. If it rains you’ll be mighty happy knowing that your gadgets won’t get wet. Also, if you want to take photos in the rain, a camera inside a ziplock bag keeps it dry. (Can’t vouch for what it does to the picture. Maybe open up the mouth of the bag and make sure the bag doesn’t show in the picture). Stick in receipts to avoid them floating around, guidemaps, etc.

I see you avoid extra weight by using e-books but your daughter is bringing old-fashioned paper. If you’re really going to try to pack light, think about bringing books that can be left behind. (I always try to do this but never can. I usually come back with more books 😉 )
You might want to include the mirror hack.
OHH! Shockwave. I know my clie supports this and I don’t remember if the TT does but I’m pretty sure pocket PC does. Grab some shockwave games and maps.
Make sure you have the contact info + confirmation # for your car rental, lodging, attractions (incl. hours), food, and etc. If they have a map grab it with isilo.

As to the phone, I recommend getting a pre-paid phone there instead of renting. I was in ireland and bought a pre-paid sieman’s phone from vodafone. It was about $100 and included $40 call credit. But the best thing about this is that you’re in a country where you A) can understand the language so using the phone and it’s email isn’t a problem B)GSM is king and they have all sorts of neat gadgets. My vodafone Ireland would read my email msgs in a pleasant woman’s voice when people sent mail to a vodafone email account. Also, I could email a voice message to friends back in the states. Plus it is a really really neat souvenier.

As already mentioned, batteries. Never can have enough of those spare batteries.

Have fun. My wife and I just got back from London two weeks ago. Cold, but no rain. Overall a pleasant trip, except for the broken Central line, no stops at Baker St., intermittent Waterloo and City line problems, and the same on District and Circle.

BA is pretty similar to American, which we flew. Had a choice of 4 or 5 movies to watch during the flight that repeated several times, so not too bad. Most were new releases that I had not yet seen. You will appreciate warm clothes for sure. Have a good trip.

For a smaller soln to using both a Memory Stick & a CF card on an iPaq, you can use Pitech’s Dual Memory Stick-CompactFlash Adapter. It’s very thin (much thinner than the std iPaq CF sleeve or Seidio’s Dual CF sleeve), & available at CompUSA. George Mosquera did a georgeous mod for it as well. It doesn’t have an extra bty, which would add bulk but would still not give enough juice to last an intercontinental flight of continuous usage.

You might be interested in Boxwave’s miniSync. It’s a very tiny USB charge-sync cable that is also retractable into a tiny casing. Remember to close your jaw after you’ve seen it! 😉

iGo’s Juice is also a very versatile soln for travel coz it’s a universal all-in-one power adapter for charging notebooks, mobile phones, & PDAs at the wall power outlet, in the plane or automobile. It has a worldwide auto-sensing capability, & with an optional charging cable, it can charge your PDA/phone at the same time as your notebook. eCost used to sell it below a $100 with free shipping .. don’t know whether that’s still the case. You’ll only need to carry one power adapter instead of one for each equipment.

For storage, I think $111 (=$103 + $8 Shipping) isn’t too much to pay for a very fast Iomega 1GB Microdrive. It’s available new at Half.com & it includes a PCMCIA adapter & a clamshell case.

Recently, Sandisk’s 1GB CF was available as low as $139.99 after rebate price (rebate not avail. anymore but watch out for new deals :)). Sandisk’s CFs are rather slow but a price around that range is very affordable. eCost is selling their GVP 1GB CF for $199 (after rebate price). [eCost’s GVP CFs are supposed to be quality CFs made by reputable companies that carry a 5yr warrantee. You will receive a CF made & branded by any of a number of reputable CF mfrs; there’s no ‘GVP’ branding.] Several pple & I have ordered that & the GVP CF turned out to be Viking’s 1GB CF. That is a very fast card rated faster than most if not all other 12X or 16X CF cards! And the Viking card is selling for close to $400! What a deal! 🙂

Just for photos, IMO, a 1GB CF would be more than enough for a couple-wks’ vacation. For Judie, since you have a digicam with a CF storage, it makes even more sense. I’m not sure whether your S330 takes in Microdrives, if not you’d have to go for a Type-I CF card. I’m using my 1GB Viking CF with my Canon S230, which uses only Type-I CF cards.

If you’re still open to new program ideas, one for Pocketpc and Palm is Worldmate. It’s a world-time, international weather (updates from weather.com), currency converter, measurement converter, international calling codes, and even some dress sizes program. Both Palm and Pocketpc versions have a conduit, and it even supports OsX for a change.. although you can also update it with a gsm phone. I use this on a daily basis and even though it’s graphics could use some work, it’s a great utility.

Only true Gadgeteers would take 2 PDAs each. 😉 I’d switch the Ipaq for an Ipod and the B&O a8s for etymotic 4ps (have the er6, wish I had the 4p) as the most ideal for me. 😀

I noticed that you have the default clip-on cover on your TT. What happened to the aluminum hard case you were using?

The reason I’m asking is that I’m still trying to decide on the TT. If I were to get one, I would want to carry it “naked” to reduce weight and bulk but I’m concerned that a separate cover and the slider will make whipping this out while on the go more of a hassle than a convenience.

Just curious of your choice of BackupMan for the TT. I checked it out and also Botzam backup, but ultimately had to get Botzam given that BackupMan doesnt encrypt the backup files.
At least, to me, the security of the backup is important given the large amount of info I carry. And yes, I do use SplashID, but I still have a lot of contacts with note info in them that could make a pretty good profile if someone cared.
I also use Teallock which means that scheduled backups are not going to work.
I emailed BitsnBolts (sic) and they said that while encryption was planned in future releases it wasnt in the timetable yet. Backupman does look nicer than Botzam though.

The cover on the Tungsten T does not increase it bulk by much at all. It is very form fitting. Also, its made of plastic and won’t give you that much extra weight to carry around. You’ll still be able to carry it in your pocket. As a matter of fact, I have a m130 and a leather Hi-Pro case and carry that in my pocket everywhere. Doesn’t bother me at all. Hope this helps! 😎

Originally posted by sixty-four
[B]I noticed that you have the default clip-on cover on your TT. What happened to the aluminum hard case you were using?
[/B]

Judie uses the Proporta, but I decided to just take the plastic cover with me while on vacation. I thought it would be easier to use for reading ebooks and listening to mp3s on the plane without having to open a case to see the screen.

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